IBM Scientists Use DNA Scaffolding To Build Tiny Circuit Board

Well, it appears we are as split upon this topic. The good news is so are most of the people who discuss this topic.

It has been a very entertaining topic and I thank you for the stimulating conversation.

I will counter the last couple of points and then give you the floor.

If that were the case than eventually, you'd never miss..

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You would always stand a chance of missing as there are an infinite number of variables that could happen. The catcher could miss-step, he could see something in the stands that distracts him etc. The catcher however is a pro and therefore his abilities are naturally better than the average person. This is why he very seldom misses compared to the average person.

...most players know if they are going to swing or not before the ball is even thrown. How the batter swings (bunt, slow, or hard) is also determined before hand. Once the ball is thrown, all that is decided, based on expectations, is when to swing the bat in their predetermined way. If it is a curve ball and the batter didn't expect it, the batter will most likely miss or foul. If the ball is moving slower than expected, the batter will most likely swing too early. If the ball is moving faster than expected, the batter will swing late.

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This particular example has nothing to do with the brain, this is a case of pure gambling.
If the pitcher has thrown a curve,two fast and a drop, and the next pitch according to the films and his stats will be a curve, then all calculations, however performed, are removed as the batter is going to swing in a particular way with no adjustments or compensation.

I would argue that these are pre-programmed instincts for survival. Food is a try it and see proposition, threats such as loud noises, sudden movement etc. are common in all animals and genetic compatibility, well, there are anti sheep laws out there for a reason.

The brains true gift is reasoning, no other animal can even come close to it. Reasoning encompasses the " I wonder why that happens.."

The other gift is abstract thinking. It is not always right, but it is a very powerful mechanism. It may have been wrong in the " he is sick because demons are in him..." but none the less, this was a very abstract and profound thought.

Never miss? Please nothing is perfect. It will miss eventually. Computers know nothing but what man builds them to do.

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A computer can calculate air pressures, wind speed, wind direction, velocity, gravity, spin of the ball, time to swing, swing force, etc. and always get it right in a matter of microseconds. The only "x" factor is mechanical failure (like the bat slips from the robot's grasper) once it is dialed in.

You would always stand a chance of missing as there are an infinite number of variables that could happen. The catcher could miss-step, he could see something in the stands that distracts him etc. The catcher however is a pro and therefore his abilities are naturally better than the average person. This is why he very seldom misses compared to the average person.

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In professional baseball, the pitcher usually signals to the catcher what the throw will be. That little bit of information is why catchers catch the ball more often than batters hit the ball.

The same thing can be demonstrated in reaction time tests by comparing experiments conducted at random intervals compared to constant intervals. At constant intervals, people practically catch it before it drops. At random intervals, they will barely catch it before it leaves their hands. Expectations are the difference between that wine glass falling on the floor shattering or someone catching it before it hits the floor.

This particular example has nothing to do with the brain, this is a case of pure gambling.
If the pitcher has thrown a curve,two fast and a drop, and the next pitch according to the films and his stats will be a curve, then all calculations, however performed, are removed as the batter is going to swing in a particular way with no adjustments or compensation.

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It has everything to do with the brain. The brain can execute a previous command much faster than learning a new one. Because baseball is all about reaction times, the brain's only decision is to swing or not to swing (ehm, execute, don't, or halt execution).

The brains true gift is reasoning, no other animal can even come close to it. Reasoning encompasses the " I wonder why that happens.."

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We don't understand animals well enough to be certain of that. Yes, their ability to reason is vastly diminished compared to ours but they can still reason to a degree (especially primates).

My point is that computers exist because they succeed where humans do not--calculations. The very first computer was British and performed as a Nazi codebreaker. If you could just spit out what the square root of 1,234,567,890 is in under a second, we wouldn't need computers. At the same time, computers don't speak our biological language which is why they are a PITA to program.

For instance, I was going to get the square root of that number for you but I can't find the damn square root button on the Windows calculator. So, I pound my chest like an ape, found my TI-89, turn a light on to see the screen, hit the keys, and finally get an answer: 35,140. If Math.Sqrt(1234567890) were already programmed into the computer, it could have told me the answer in less than 1/16th of a second. Likewise, I can tell the computer I hate it in less than 1/16th of second merely by punching it.

Computers and humans are alike in many ways but we see the world in very different ways: one explains everything in binary, the other explains everything in stories.

Back on topic, I'm excited that biology is being applied to computing. It is a lot of work for us to build machines that in turn builds processors. It would be much, much, much cheaper to have processors grow like weeds. XD

Just like computers and animals though, they mustn't have intelligence or else we'd be engineering a virus.